Per "Jessamine County, Ky, 1798 - 1993", submitted by Carrie J. Burton PAINT LICK COMMUNITY The Paint Lick Community, established in the late seventeen hundreds, was a thriving community for many years. Abe Buford was granted, by court order, right to operate a ferry across the Kentucky River at the mouth of Paint Lick Creek, connecting KY 39 running from Nicholasville to Lancaster. Horse and man, 6 pence (French Tipton Papers). In 1815, the Circuit Court of Garrard County, then granted Henry Reynolds the right to operate the ferry. Many people owned or operated the Paint Lick Ferry from it's beginning in 1789 till it closed after 1943. Some owner operators were : Abe Buford, Henry Reynolds, Lige Hurt, Wylie B. Fisk Burton, Hiram Teater, William Walker, Tom Burton, Hughie Burton and many others. Christine Walker Burton's grandfather, William Walker, was operating the ferry in 1862 when he was conscripted by the Union Army. Several showboats stopped at Paint Lick. The boats would go up the river passing out handbills at each stop and then as they came down river, they would stop and perform a play. Christine Burton remembers attending a play "Uncle Tom's Cabin," when she was 9 years old, in 1923. The Paint Lick Ferry was the center of the community. On Sunday, people would come from miles around, bringing a basket lunch. The men played games, marbles and horseshoe pitching, and the women visited with neighbors or went to preaching services. Preacher Joseph Henry Wright, husband of Mary "Polly" Murphy Walker, often held servie on the river bank. Sometimes preachers came from Asbury College to preach in Paint Lick School and sometimes Grandpa Sam Walker preached in the schoolhouse. The Paint Lick school began in 1927 with Lelia Carter as it's first teacher and ended in 1943 with Eliza Crutcher as it's last teacher. Among the early families living in this community were: Russell Teater, Lige Teater, Sam Brock, William Walker, Sam Walker, John Stinnett, Dick Blakeman, Lindsey Reynolds, Tom Burton, Mrs. Emmy Underwood and Sam Owens. The families still living in the Paint Lick community, who are descendants of the original families, are Burtons, Walkers and Lowrys.